Tomorrow's Horoscopes: From Ancient Babylon to Today

People often turn to astrology with the hope of catching a glimpse into the future or a prediction about things to come. This same desire tempts us to want to see our tomorrow's horoscopes as well in hopes that it will be better than our present one or perhaps even warn us of things to come.
However, it's important to remember that the key to understanding our future often lies within the past. This means that paying close attention to our current situation can help us to understand the meaning of the message in tomorrow's horoscope. Also, it means that if you want to really have a better understanding of astrology, you might also want to learn a few things about its origins as well!
Our voyage to the past takes us far away to the second millennium B.C. Babylonia, where, according to archaeological evidence, organized astrology first emerged. At its start, Babylonian astrology relied on omens, gaining more complexity as the centuries passed. One of the first big concepts in Babylonian astrology was the belief that the observable phenomena in the heavens also directly influenced life on earth. When you think about it, it's actually easy to see the logic behind this reasoning. The ancient Babylonians depended heavily on agriculture, and omens from the heavens such as the cycles of the sun, stars and moon all had an impact on the seasons, weather and the fertility of the soil.
Babylonian priests then concluded that it the gods in the heaven ruled these natural occurrences, and the five known planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) were identified as the Babylonian gods Nabu, Ishtar, Nergal, Marduk and Ninurta. The priests also identified fixed star formations and made their own interpretations how these played upon the cycles they observed above.
Still, their astrological interpretations of the phenomena they observed above were fairly primitive by today's standards. Their beliefs were based primarily on an association of ideas. For example, if a certain astrological observation was followed by a good event, then that observation was considered a positive astrological sign. There is also no evidence indicating that the ancient Babylonians ever developed the concept of the twelve signs of the zodiac. In the end, while the Babylonians were excellent at making observations and predicting cosmic movements and signs, most all of their early astrological beliefs were eventually abandoned.
Despite this fact, their early contributions were still very significant. As their ideas spread west and were adopted first by the Egyptians and then later the Greeks, the science of modern astrology slowly evolved into what we know it as today. So, the next time you read tomorrows horoscope, remember that it was first conceived by the ancient Babylonians approximately eight thousand years ago!